So my organizing challenge this week with A Bowl Full of Lemons is a Gift Wrap Station. We’ll get to that in a moment.

In beginning the challenge I first decided to organize and relocate my actual gift wrap. Some people are distracted by shiny objects while driving {not naming any names or anything, but you know who you are, lovely man I’m married to}. Me? I’ve got a Paper Problem. I could literally get lost in stores like Paper Source or Kate’s Paperie. Couple that with having overseen our school’s wrapping paper fundraiser for the past few years and I suddenly find myself the slightly embarrassed owner of about 50 rolls of wrapping paper. But it’s all so pretty!

I first relocated all the Christmas rolls I bought on 75% clearance after the holidays to the attic where I plan to do something like this cute idea come December. Then I found a brightly colored can that was tall enough to accomodate the wrapping paper and things like basket shrink wrap, my big roll of chalkboard fabric, some random dowel rods, etc. In this photo you can also see my bulk stash of Etsy shipping boxes and padded envelopes.

While I am awe of people who have stand alone gift wrap stations neatly tucked in places like armoires, I use my other supplies too frequently to merit a dedicated piece of furniture. I’m also fortunate enough to have my own little craft room so it works for me to have it spread through the room. Besides, let’s be honest, most of the time, I plop down smack in the middle of the rug and wrap there, anyway! I’ve talked about this before, but I’m a big believer in “real” ribbon for gift wrap and so I have this mounted on my wall for most of my grosgrain and satins:

And then tucked away in my “Monica Closet” is a bin of all different colored tulle rolls ~

I don’t buy that many traditional greeting cards to attach to gifts anymore. For The Cuties and their friends, we use “calling cards,” which I LOVE. It saves so much money, and since I usually order 25-50 at a time, we always have them on hand. I have individual ones, ones with both of their names on them, family ones, and ones with Cute Husband’s and my first names on them; clearly, I’m a fan.

I also keep a small stash of gift bags and boxes on hand. My craft room has a nice built-in armoire/closet {usually referred to as The Monica Closet because it’s crammed with random supplies that don’t fit anywhere else and it’s always a mess!}. I stuck a 3M hook up there and then took the biggest gift bag as my storage bag and put everything inside.

OK, so I didn’t follow directions very well and “create” a gift wrap station, but this works great for me. I LOVE wrapping gifts. In fact, I’d love to be a professional gift wrapper, although I think I’d hate the monotony of only having two or three papers from which to choose, day in and day out. So here’s my deep, burning question for you ~ are you a paper or bag kind of person? 🙂

Calling cards are little business sized cards with cute designs that simply say each of my daughters’ full names on the them {they are sometimes called enclosure cards}. I attach them to the packages with a small piece of double-sided tape instead of a full-sized card. Here are a bunch of nice examples ~ http://www.finestationery.com/shop/gifts/enclosure-calling-cards.html

Hey there old friend! It’s 80 here in Atlanta and we’re getting excited for another summer at Kiawah. Maybe we’ll eventually be there at the same time again! I love all of your organizing tips. I actually broke my container store wrapping paper organizer so I need a new one now. Love the big green pail. Where did you get it? I seriously doubt that your closet is as messy as Monica’s. Hers seemed to topple out all over her whenever she opened it!